330 pages 


When Scott Douglas took a job as a page at a public library in southern California when he was in college, he had no idea what he was getting into. He ending up finding a career...a career that he quickly realized would not be what he expected. Instead of checking out books and shushing noisy children, he found himself kicking teens off the computer for looking at porn, getting mooned by a disgruntled patron, and trying to get people from sleeping in the bathroom. In addition to all the ridiculousness, though, he discovered that he could really touch people's lives through the library. Sometimes it was teaching the elderly how to use the computer to see pictures of their grandchildren. Sometimes it was doing storytime to give kids a love of reading. Through it all, Scott learned to take the good with the bad, and, on the bright side, at least the bad is pretty hilarious. 


Since I'm a librarian, I totally related to Scott. At times, when I'm, say, cleaning up puke because the cleaning crew is gone for the day, I'm thinking "I got a masters for THIS?" But I've learned to appreciate those moments because at least they make for good stories! And all the good parts totally worth a little bizarreness...helping people finding good books, look for jobs, and do homework makes me feel awesome. But back to the book...I totally cracked up at several points throughout Scott's story because it's so over-the-top, but I know it's all true. At times, I felt like Scott was a bit condescending toward the patrons, and I got annoyed when he would talk about being bored at work and goofing off to pass the time...we never have free time at my library! Still, I enjoyed his stories. They reminded me of things I love about my job and made me laugh as well. 

"Running the Books: The Adventures of An Accidental Prison Librarian" by Avi Steinberg

399 pages

Pimps make the best librarians. Psycho killers, the worst. Ditto con men.

So begins this memoir. It all started when Avi Steinberg graduated from college and wasn't sure what to do with himself. Though he graduated from one of the most distinguished schools in the country--Harvard--he felt a lot of career-related pressure from the extraordinarily high standards of the Orthodox Jewish community he grew up. When he saw an ad in the paper for a prison librarian, he decided to give it a try. What Avi thought would just pay the bills and provide insurance until he figured out what he wanted to do ended up changing his life. Nothing could have prepared him for the bizarre culture he'd become part of in the tough Boston prison. There was the anxious pimp who solicited Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir. A passionate gangster who dreamed of hosting a cooking show called "Thug Sizzle." A disgruntled officer who instigated a major feud over a Post-it note. A doomed ex-stripper who asked Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, who was an inmate himself. Some of it's funny and some of it's heartbreaking, but it's all fascinating. In fact, I loved this entire memoir. I find prison culture in general very interesting, even more so from a librarian's perspective since I am a librarian myself. I really like Avi's writing style; I think he uses the perfect tones for both the touching and the hilarious parts, and he does a great job of humanizing the inmates without being cheesy about it. In some cases, he has to reconcile the kind, interesting people he gets to know in the library with the violent crimes he knows they have committed. He's honest about his struggles to give the inmates a chance without being flippant about the things they've done or completely letting his guard down. This is a book that will stick with me for a while, and I hope Avi Steinberg writes more books!

Black Belt Librarians: Every Librarian's Real World Guide to a Safer Workplace by Warren Davis Graham, Jr.

I've read Graham's books before and we've even had him talk at our staff development day, but I've never reviewed them and it was time to refresh my memory. Graham worked security but did not know libraries until he talked with the director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Library in North Carolina. What happens next is my favorite thing to watch-the initiation of the unknowing to the knowing about public libraries and what we all deal with on a daily basis.

A small practical book, Graham shares his knowledge about handling different situations and feeling empowered to deal with the public. It's easy going tone laced with humor will set many readers at ease-even those who are not at all certain they have what it takes to play security guard librarian. 55 pages, 2006.

Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile by Gloria M. Houston, illustrated by Susan Condie Lamb

2011/32 pgs

OK, I'll admit I'll pretty much like almost any picture books with librarians, but this one is one of my new favorites! Miss Dorothy is a spunky librarian-one we can all aspire to be like. She doesn't let the fact that her husband takes a job in a small town without a library stop her-instead she creates her own bookmobile and keeps the library running! A touching story and a memorable librarian!

Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti

“Didn’t I just know it! She looked like somebody who reads books all the time, voluntarily. Long ones, with small print and no pictures. Wretched woman!”

Shrimp is a recently widowed librarian who has a fondness for beige and poetry. Benny is a dairy farmer barely keeping his head above water after the death of his beloved mother. Sharing a bench for months at the cemetery they both frequent they both grow to loathe each other. Then Benny imagines Shrimp in a dominatrix outfit at the same time she looks up at his amazing smile. Cupid strikes quickly and they fall in love. But really, what does a dairy farmer who appreciates the tackier things in life and a refined librarian have in common?

This book charmed my socks off! Each chapter alternates between Benny and Shrimp’s view of their life and the relationship they both share. Both are struggling to come to terms with the death of people they loved but ultimately have trouble grieving. Both are intelligent, quirky and want more from the life they are living. A fascinating character study that reminds us that while people find and come together as friends or lovers, they rarely see the simplest of events the same way. One caveat, the ending is left open and the sequel has not been translated into English. I’m working on my Swedish as I type! 1998, 209 pages.

"The Night Bookmobile" by Audrey Niffenegger

40 pages

In this graphic novel, Alexandra discovers an unusual bookmobile on one of her middle-of-the-night walks around Chicago. It's a mobile library that contains every book, magazine, newspaper, letter, form, and scrap of paper that Alexandra has ever read. But she can't check anything out, and when she returns to the spot where she found the library the next night, it's gone. She searches for it every night and soon it becomes an obsession. For years, she occasionally finds the bookmobile, only to lose it again. It inspires her to go to library school and find a career that she loves, but ultimately her obsession with books and the bookmobile is more harmful than helpful.

This book seems to be saying two things to me: one, that our relationship to books is powerful and the things we read shape who we are; and two, that there is danger in putting more effort into reading than our real lives and relationships with real people (and I expand this to include not only books but also any kind of escape from reality, like television, movies, and video games). It seems strange that a best-selling author would write a book about the dangers of reading, but I think she basically wants to encourage people to enjoy books but not to take them too seriously and forget to live in the real world. It's an interesting concept that I haven't read about in any other books. The illustrations are plain and the book left me with a sad feeling, but I recommend it for anyone who loves to read, as it made me think about the way that books impact my life.

The Tardis Handbook

by Steve Tribe, 128 pages

As a relatively new Whovian (I actually prefer being called a "Wholigan"), I wanted to brush up on all the new Tardis bells and whistles. This book features Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, so the latest version of the Tardis is featured in this book.

I learned quite about the history of the Tardis (Time and Relative Dimension in Space for you Muggles). It also highlighted some prior Time Lord history, and explained who the Doctor's enemies are. (Exterminate! For a quick online review, watch the musical number from the Craig Ferguson Show on Youtube.)

If you've read this far, you are either a Whovian or have the potential to become one. In that case, I read another book last fall that you might enjoy: Chicks Dig Time Lords. It has literate essays from female fans, including many librarians and novelists.

In the Whoniverse, Ten will always be my Doctor.

Rex Libris: I, Librarian

by James Turner, 183 pages (or thereabouts--I had to count!)

Rex Libris is a librarian. A reeeeeally good librarian. In fact, he's the Head Librarian at Middleton Public Library (the real one, underground, and built on ley lines that occasionally cause the books' characters to manifest in the stacks where they cause mayhem and / or innocent fun). He's been around since he was born in ancient Rome and travelled all over the world(s). And he's a member of Ordo Bibliotheca, the International Order of Librarians, a super secret organization that has supported libraries throughout history. His Library Administrator is Thoth, the ibis-headed Egyptian god, who's very particular about the arrangement of dust in the Library and rather put out that he's been supplanted by other deities in modern popular religion. And Rex's roomie is an egomaniac named Simonides who's been cursed into the body of a little telekinetic bird by Circe--you know, the witch from Odysseus's epic journey? The one who seduces him and turns his crew into pigs? Well, now she works at the library. Supposedly, she's retired and reformed and prefers to bake really tasty cookies for storytime, but she still has a sharp pointy sword and some sneaky ways of dealing with unruly patrons (besides turning them into pigs, which, admittedly, she did do once recently, which got her put on probation, but still...). Speaking of unruly patrons, you don't want to be one. Refuse to check your demon spirit samurai sword at the desk and then try to take out Evil Made Easy without a card? Bad idea. Run off to your newly enslaved snowmen planet and fail to return Principia Mathematica on time? First, you get a "friendly" phone call. Then you get a visit. You don't want to get a visit.

The tagline above the title is "The World's Favourite Kick-A** Sesquipedalian Librarian!" I had to look that one up. Hilariously, it means one given to overuse of long words. *snort* This is totally true. Rex (and Thoth and Circe and Rex's comic book editor and everybody else) expends a lot of air talking about everything from classical history and mythology to quantum physics to overdue books. It just makes the short sentences that much funnier. I could not have read this when I was tired (there's a lot of text and it's very small), but it is a nice accompaniment to a hot cup (or two or three) of coffee. The author also suggests a pastry, but I didn't have any on hand. I'll see about remedying that whenever I get around to reading the second installment.